Sorry, John, I must disagree with you on this. CoStar has its shortcomings, and yes, it’s expensive, but compared to some of the alternatives, CoStar is one of the best resources for commercial real estate.
Maybe CoStar is just not a good tool for brokers? I’m not a broker. I don’t know. To be honest, I had no idea CoStar actually provided listing services. CoStar probably provides many products and services, but I know of it mostly as a great source for market data and its comprehensive comps database. Most institutional investors and lenders use CoStar. I guess cost is less of an issue for them as long as the data is reliable and can be delivered on time. Given that CoStar is based in DC, its coverage of the DC Metro area is especially comprehensive. CoStar also owns PPR, which offers research and advisory services for 170 global markets.
All real estate is local. CoStar probably just doesn’t have a big presence on the left coast. I’m always amazed at how difference brokerage firms can produce completely different market reports for the same market/submarket. Sometimes an independent source is good, and sometimes you just have to make some phone calls, and do your own research.
the problem is that there is so much stuff out here that they track a ton of "garbage". the comps are essential to brokerage though. the analytics out here can be great in areas/product types and worthless in others.
[...] in a freely accessible (or fairly priced) online database maintained in a wiki-like fashion. Deal Junkies posted his thoughts on the matter on Monday as well. The combination of these three posts (conversation) motivated me to write [...]
[...] in a freely accessible (or fairly priced) online database maintained in a wiki-like fashion. Deal Junkies posted his thoughts on the matter on Monday as well. The combination of these three posts (conversation) motivated me to write [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by John Reeder. John Reeder said: @dealjunkieblog weighs in on CRE comps debate. http://bit.ly/aTKEld [...]